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The 1864 preparations contain either crude opium or its aqueous Extractum Opii; those quantities must be distinguished from a quantity of isolated morphine. The following are the officinal opium preparations. Ratios for solids mean the mass fraction in the compounded preparation; liquid strengths specify mass per volume or the actual ingredients used.
- Emplastrum Opii: powdered opium in resin plaster: 1 in 10.
- Enema Opii: opium tincture 30 minims with starch decoction 2 fluid ounces. Thus the tincture is 1 volume to 32 volumes of vehicle, before mixing.
- Extractum Opii: aqueous solvent extraction of 1 avoirdupois pound of sliced opium with 6 Imperial pints of distilled water, in three successive portions, followed by evaporation. The prescribed starting quantities do not impose a fixed yield or a universal crude-drug-to-extract potency ratio.
- Extractum Opii Liquidum: Extractum Opii 1 avoirdupois ounce, distilled water 17 fluid ounces, rectified spirit 3 fluid ounces: 1 ounce of extract to the pint of liquid ingredients.
- Linimentum Opii: equal volumes of opium tincture and soap liniment: half the tincture's nominal opium strength.
- Pilula Opii: powdered opium with hard soap: 1 in 5 of the nominal pill ingredients.
- Pilula Plumbi cum Opio: powdered opium with lead acetate and confection of roses: 1 in 8.
- Pulvis Cretae Aromaticus cum Opio: powdered opium with aromatic chalk powder: 1 in 40.
- Pulvis Ipecacuanhae cum Opio: powdered opium with ipecacuanha and potassium sulfate: 1 in 10.
- Pulvis Kino cum Opio: powdered opium with kino and cinnamon: 1 in 20.
[ref]
The Essentials of Materia Medica and Therapeutics by Alfred Baring Garrod (1865). Papaverceae, part 2, British formulas outside the bracketed American additions; underlying revision dated May 1864
- Tinctura Camphorae cum Opio: opium 40 grains to 1 Imperial pint of proof spirit, with benzoic acid, camphor and anise oil: 2 grains of opium per fluid ounce.
- Opium tincture, Tinctura Opii: powdered opium 1½ avoirdupois ounces to 1 Imperial pint of proof spirit. Nominally this is 32.8125 grains per fluid ounce, or approximately 1 grain per 14.63 minims.
- Trochisci Opii: 72 grains of Extractum Opii in 720 lozenges: one tenth of a grain of extract per lozenge.
- Unguentum Gallae cum Opio: powdered opium 32 grains added to 1 avoirdupois ounce of gall ointment. The actual nominal total is grains, giving 32/469.5 by mass, approximately 1 in 14.67; “32 grains to the ounce of ointment taken” is not 32 grains per final ounce.
- Vinum Opii: powdered opium 1½ avoirdupois ounces, sherry 1 Imperial pint: the tincture's nominal opium proportion, in a different solvent. This formula uses crude opium, not Extractum Opii.
[ref]
The Essentials of Materia Medica and Therapeutics by Alfred Baring Garrod (1865). Papaverceae, part 3, British tincture, lozenge, ointment and wine formulas
The arithmetic uses the new avoirdupois ounce of 437.5 grains, not the old apothecaries' ounce of 480 grains. These are historical formulation proportions, not modern assays of morphine delivered after solvent extraction. Confectio Opii was omitted in 1864, and this edition's Vinum Opii contains no spices. The separate morphine hydrochloride preparations—Liquor Morphiae Hydrochloratis, Suppositoria Morphiae, Trochisci Morphiae, and Trochisci Morphiae et Ipecacuanhae—contain an isolated alkaloid salt rather than crude opium. [ref]
The Prescriber's Analysis of the British Pharmacopoeia by John Birkbeck Nevins (1864). pp. 11–12, 39 and 75–76
The principal period groups were digitalis preparations, squill, broom, juniper oil, buchu, nitrous ether spirit, and several soluble potassium salts. They were grouped by observed promotion of urine flow, rather than by one common mechanism. The following are historical adult quantities per administration, expressed in the contemporary units; they are not present-day prescriptions.
- Digitalis preparations: powdered leaves, ½–2 grains; Infusum Digitalis, 2–4 fluid drachms; Tinctura Digitalis, 5–40 minims; digitalin, 1/40–1/10 grain in the period table. Historical digitalin was not simply a modern pure digoxin product.
- Squill: powder, 1–2 grains; Pilula Scillae Composita, 5–10 grains; Tinctura Scillae, 10–20 minims; Syrupus Scillae, ½–1½ fluid drachms.
- Broom: Decoctum Scoparii, 1–3 fluid ounces; Succus Scoparii, 1–4 fluid drachms.
- Buchu: powdered leaves, 20–40 grains; Infusum Bucco, 1–2 fluid ounces; Tinctura Bucco, 1–2 fluid drachms.
- Juniper oil: Spiritus Juniperi, 10–30 minims in the 1864 commentary. This unusually concentrated spirit contains one volume of juniper oil in ten; its dose must not be borrowed from a later, weaker formula.
- Nitrous ether spirit, Spiritus Aetheris Nitrosi: 30 minims to 2 fluid drachms.
- Potassium acetate: 10–20 grains; potassium citrate: 20–60 grains; potassium nitrate: 5–20 grains; potassium tartrate: 10–60 grains; potassium hydrogen tartrate: 20–60 grains.
- Ammonium acetate solution, Liquor Ammoniae Acetatis: 10–40 minims of the concentrated British preparation, diluted for administration.
[ref]
The Essentials of Materia Medica and Therapeutics by Alfred Baring Garrod (1865). Posological table: Digitalis, Infusum Digitalis, Scoparius preparations, Bucco preparations, Spiritus Aetheris Nitrosi, potassium salts and Liquor Ammoniae Acetatis; Liliaceae: squill preparations
[ref]The Prescriber's Analysis of the British Pharmacopoeia by John Birkbeck Nevins (1864). p. 61, Spiritus Juniperi, 1 in 10 and 10–30 minims
Other recognised period agents included dandelion and copaiba. The dandelion decoction was given in quantities of 1–2 fluid ounces, its soft extract in quantities of 10–30 grains, and its preserved juice in quantities of ½–2 fluid drachms. Copaiba was given in quantities of 15–30 minims, and copaiba oil in quantities of 5–20 minims. Their historical inclusion does not establish that they are suitable substitutes for current diuretic therapy. [ref]
The Essentials of Materia Medica and Therapeutics by Alfred Baring Garrod (1865). Posological table, Taraxacum preparations, Copaiba and Copaibae Oleum
The distinction between preparations matters more than a single “dose of the plant”: an infusion, tincture, juice and powder have different concentrations. Likewise, a salt's small historical diuretic dose is not its larger purgative dose. A modern explanation also separates a direct effect on renal tubules from improved cardiac output in appropriate heart failure: digitalis preparations cannot be understood simply as agents that make every kidney excrete more water. Modern digoxin is used for selected cardiac indications, rather than as a general treatment for low urine output. [ref]
Digoxin by MedlinePlus. Why is this medication prescribed?
Decoction suits material whose useful constituents are water-soluble and withstand boiling; infusion avoids sustained boiling and can better preserve delicate or volatile constituents. The choice depends on both the plant's structure and the chemistry of the constituent being extracted.
Hard bark, wood and many kinds of root need comminution and more prolonged contact with hot water to penetrate their tissues; a decoction can assist extraction when the desired material is stable. Boiling is unsuitable when it drives off a needed volatile oil, decomposes the active constituent, or extracts an unwanted excess of starch or other material. A hard root is therefore not automatically an instruction to boil. Period examples suitable for decoction include oak bark, logwood and pareira root; appropriate infusions include aromatic cloves and chamomile. Cold infusion of calumba avoids dissolving its starch, illustrating that suitability depends on the desired selectivity of solvent extraction, not merely on whether a drug is a leaf or a root. [ref]
For an infusion, the appropriately divided drug is left in a measured solvent for a prescribed time, commonly in a covered vessel. Hot water assists extraction, while a cover reduces loss of volatile matter. Cold infusion can be chosen when heat is undesirable. The result must be strained or filtered; time, temperature, particle size and solvent quantity affect its strength. Neither method guarantees that every constituent is extracted in the same proportion.
A liquid extract is made by extracting the specified drug with a suitable solvent, separating the liquid from the exhausted material, and bringing the extract to its prescribed concentration and volume. Maceration can precede percolation; expression or washing recovers retained liquid. A percolator passes fresh solvent through a packed bed, rather than indefinitely soaking the drug in an increasingly saturated liquid. Where concentration is necessary, controlled evaporation limits damage; an alcoholic fraction can be reserved or recombined as the monograph directs. Different liquid extracts can use aqueous, alcoholic or ethereal processes. For example, the liquid extract of male fern is an ethereal extraction of a resinous and oily fraction, whereas the liquid extract of opium is compounded from a previously made aqueous extract. These are chemically different operations. There is no warrant for assigning all 1864 extracts one modern universal drug-to-extract ratio. [ref]
The Prescriber's Analysis of the British Pharmacopoeia by John Birkbeck Nevins (1864). pp. 20–21 and 42–43, differing liquid extracts and strengths; p. 15, percolation